Scaly, see-through thing surprises fisherman

By Brad Lendon, CNN

Updated 1945 GMT (0345 HKT) January 22, 2014

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.

Photos:Photos: See-through sea creatures

See-through sea creatures – This creature baffled a New Zealand fisherman, but scientists think he grabbed a salp, which feeds on plankton, and is translucent to avoid predators. Check out some other see-through creatures found under the sea.

When Stewart Fraser spotted the translucent creature floating in the Pacific 40 miles off the North Island's Karikari Peninsula, he wasn't sure he even wanted on his boat, he told the UK's Mail Online.

"I was in two minds whether to haul it in, but curiosity got the better of me and I decided to take a closer look," he told the Mail. "It was quite something, and I'd never seen anything like it before."

Dennis Gordon, a scientist with New Zealand's NIWA water and atmospheric research agency, told the New Zealand Herald the see-through creature is a salp, and it's really not that rare. Salps are found around the world, and often in big numbers, scientists say. While Fraser pulled up a lone salp, scientists say they have often been found in chains more than 30 feet long.

Strange and endangered species – A Saola is caught on camera for the first time in 15 years on September 7 in a forest in Vietnam. The species was discovered in 1992, and at most a few hundred -- and as few as a couple dozen -- of the animals are thought to exist. Because of its rarity and elusiveness, the saola is dubbed the "Asian unicorn." They are recognized by two parallel horns with sharp ends, which can reach 20 inches in length and are found on both males and females.

Hide Caption

1 of 11

Photos:Strange and endangered species

Strange and endangered species – A Javan rhino walks in the national park in the Ujung Kulon National Park in Indonesia. It is one of the most threatened of the five rhino species, with as few as 35 individuals surviving. Their skin has a number of loose folds, giving the appearance of armor plating. The discovery of three dead Javan rhinos in 2010 has intensified efforts to save one of the world's most endangered mammals from extinction.

Hide Caption

2 of 11

Photos:Strange and endangered species

Strange and endangered species – The Ganges River dolphin once lived in the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Meghna, Karnaphuli and Sangu rivers of Nepal, India and Bangladesh. But the species is extinct from most of its early distribution ranges. They can only live in freshwater and essentially are blind. They hunt by emitting ultrasonic sounds, which bounce off of fish and other prey, enabling them to "see" an image in their mind.

Hide Caption

3 of 11

Photos:Strange and endangered species

Strange and endangered species – A strutting adult male greater sage-grouse is seen in Alberta, Canada. They were once found across 13 western U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. Because of oil and gas development, conversion of land for agricultural use, climate change and human development, they now only inhibit half their historic range. They are well known for their spectacular mating dances performed on mating grounds called "leks."

Hide Caption

4 of 11

Photos:Strange and endangered species

Strange and endangered species – A schoolboy reaches out to touch a humpheaded Maori wrasse as it swims in the world's largest Great Barrier Reef exhibit at the Sydney Aquarium in June 2003. It is an enormous coral reed fish—growing over 6 feet long — with a prominent bulge on its forehead. Some of them live to be over 30 years old. WWF urges local governments in the Coral Triangle to stop the trade and consumption of humphead wrasse, one of the most expensive live reef fishes in the world.

Hide Caption

5 of 11

Photos:Strange and endangered species

Strange and endangered species – A baby Buergers tree kangaroo appears out of her mother's pouch at the San Diego Zoo in January 2003 in San Diego, California. The endangered species of tree kangaroo is native to the lowland and mountainous rainforests in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. They have adapted to life in the trees, with shorter legs and stronger forelimbs for climbing, giving them the appearance of a cross between a kangaroo and a lemur. The joey plays a critical role in the Tree Kangaroo Species Survival Plan, a breeding program that has worked to ensure the long-term survivability of the species since 1977.

Hide Caption

6 of 11

Photos:Strange and endangered species

Strange and endangered species – Black spider-monkeys — also known as the Guiana or red-faced spider monkey — are one of the main monkey species encountered in healthy tropical rainforests. It's prehensile tail allows this monkey to find stability when sitting on branches and to reach out for food at the tip of fragile branches by suspending himself.

Hide Caption

7 of 11

Photos:Strange and endangered species

Strange and endangered species – A leatherback turtle goes to sea after burying eggs at the Matapica National Park. They are named for their shell, which is leather-like rather than hard. They are the largest sea turtle species and also one of the most migratory, crossing both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Although their distribution is wide, the number of these turtles has seriously declined during the past century as a result of intense egg collection and fisheries bycatch.

Hide Caption

8 of 11

Photos:Strange and endangered species

Strange and endangered species – The rockhopper penguin is much smaller in size than the emperor penguin. Rockhopper penguins weigh less than 10 pounds. They were named for their distinctive hopping movements over the rocky hills and cliffs where they live and breed. In the past 30 years, it is estimated that the population of rockhoppers has fallen by nearly 25%, and now climate change could place them at even greater risk.

Hide Caption

9 of 11

Photos:Strange and endangered species

Strange and endangered species – A bowhead whale swims under ice in the Arctic. Adult bowheads are entirely black except for the front part of the lower jaw, which is white and prominently upturned. They can grow up to 60 feet long while still being able to leap entirely out of water. Data show they may be among the longest-living animals on Earth. Based on the recovery of stone harpoon tips in their blubber, and from analysis of eye tissue, scientists believe that the life-span of bowhead whales can be more than 100 years.

Hide Caption

10 of 11

Photos:Strange and endangered species

Strange and endangered species – The pronghorn antelope is the fastest hoofed animal in North America and is capable of reaching speeds up to 60 mph. Most pronghorn populations remain stable, but have experienced a historic decline. Pronghorn follow the same migration corridors year after year. Today, the thoroughfares that link the summer breeding grounds and winter grazing areas are being fragmented by roads, cities, fences and energy development. These fragmentations threaten the migratory routes and survival of pronghorn.

Hide Caption

11 of 11

And Gordon said some salps reproduce so rapidly that they can double their population in a day.

But obviously, they are really hard to spot, which protects the salp from other creatures that would like to make a meal of them, Paul Cox, director of conservation and communication at the National Marine Aquarium, told the Mail.

"In common with other defenseless animals that occupy open water -- jellies and hydroids for example -- the translucence presumably provides some protection from predation. Being see-through is a pretty good camouflage in water," Cox said.

Gordon told the Herald that when they can be caught, scalps are a good food source for some fish, seals and turtles. They are more nutritious than jellyfish, he said.

He also said the salps, which feed by taking in water through internal filters, are important predators themselves, but not one that any human needs to be afraid of.

"They can eat the smallest plant plankton and can even eat bacteria, so they can exist in parts of the ocean where nothing else can live. The significance of that is they are an intermediary in the food chain,'' the Herald quoted Gordon as saying.

So what does a rapidly reproducing, filter-feeding, translucent predator feel like?